LIN 3460
Spring 2009
EXAM 1 (September 17, 2009) - ANSWERS
Write all your answers on separate paper. Nothing you write on the exam will be considered.
I.
Morphological Analysis (40 points)
(A) Below are some (slightly simplified) data from the Elisabethville dialect of Swahili. Give
a lexicon and grammar that completely describe these data. Model your lexical entries
and word formation rules on the samples given below and ones from class problems.
Make sure you give at least as much information as in the table. Include any commentary
that you feel would be helpful in making your answer more understandable.
(B) Fill in the probable Swahili for examples 13-15.
Sample lexical entries (from English)
PHON.
ROOT OR
LEXICAL
FORM
AFFIX
CATEGORY
/klak/
/r/
/di/
root
affix
affix
N
AFFIX
TYPE
MEANING OR
FUNCTION
suffix
prefix
‘clock’
Comparative
‘remove N from’
Sample Word Formation Rules
V Æ V (negation) tense subject-agreement
A Æ A (comparative)
V Æ de N
CATEGORY
ATTACHMENT AND
CHANGE INFORMATION
A Æ A
N Æ V
(Turkish)
(English)
Be careful how you gloss the various affixes and refer to them in the word formation rules. Be
sure to use the morphological categories and terminology that we talked about. NOTE: the final
–a is a separate morpheme, which you can ignore (just pretend it is not there).
(1)
(2)
(3)
(4)
(5)
(6)
(7)
(8)
ninasem-a
wunasem-a
anasem-a
tunasem-a
munasem-a
wanasem-a
ninaon-a
ninawaon-a
‘I speak’
‘You (sg.) speak’
‘He speaks’
‘We speak’
‘You (pl.) speak’
‘They speak’
‘I see’
‘I see them’
(9)
(10)
(11)
(12)
(13)
(14)
(15)
A.
Lexicon:
/sem/ root V ‘speak’
/on/ root V ‘see’
/ni/ affix, prefix, 1st SG
/wu/ affix, prefix, 2nd SG
/a/ affix, prefix, 3rd SG
/tu/ affix, prefix, 1st PL
1
nilion-a
‘I saw’
ananion-a ‘he sees me’
niliwuon-a ‘I saw you (sg.)’
wutakanion-a ‘you will see me’
-‘he saw them’
-‘I will see you (pl)’
-‘He saw me’
LIN 3460
Fall 2009
/mu/ affix, prefix, 2nd PL
/wa/ affix, prefix, 3rd PL
/na/ affix, prefix, Present Tense
/li/ affix, prefix, Past Tense
/taka/ affix, prefix, Future Tense
WFR
V Æ SUBJ TENSE (OBJ) V
B.
(13) aliwaona
(14) nitamuona
(15) aliniona
II.
Short Answer (60 points total, 12 points each question)
Answer 5 of the following 7 questions.
1.
Give a general definition of a morpheme. Explain why the two underlined elements in the
words baker and harder necessarily represent two separate morphemes.
Answer:
Morpheme: smallest element that has meaning or function. –er represents two different meanings
(agent in baker; comparative in harder), hence must be two morphemes.
(this is ok but not needed: In addition, the first (-er in baker) attaches to a V to make a N; the
second attached to an A to yield an A.)
2.
Is the English morpheme -less as in child-less, home-less, and hat-less a derivational or
inflectional morpheme? Give at least two reasons to support your answer.
Answer
-less is a derivational affix
(1) because it significantly affect the meaning of the root; it contributes a clear semantic
meaning, namely ‘without’;
(2) because it changes categories (word classes): it takes an N and yields an A
(3) because it does not apply to all stems of a class, e.g. *tableless, *chairless, *manless
(4) because it is not required in order to incorporate it into discourse. E.g., instead of ‘He is
homeless’ one can say ‘He has no home’.
(5) because it can be related to other derivational categories (it does not form a paradigm with
other categories), e.g. homelessness.
3.
Give a lexicon and a WFR for the Hebrew data. What is the morphological process that is
involved in forming the words in (a’) and (b’)?
(a) exad ‘one’
(b) ʃnayim ‘two’
(a’) exadexad ‘one by one’
(b’) ʃnayimʃnayim ‘two by two’
2
LIN 3460
Fall 2009
Answer:
Lexicon:
/exad/ N ‘one’
/ʃnayim/ N ‘two’
W(ord) prefix(?) ‘number by number’
Note: If you wrote in the Lexicon for ‘one’ and ‘two’ – Number – I will accept it.
Grammar:
Hebrew number rule: copy the (whole) stem and prefix it to the stem.
The morphological process that derives ‘number by number’ in Hebrew is called
reduplication.
4.
Explain and illustrate the distinction of free and bound morphemes.
Answer:
A free morpheme is a form that can stand as a word on its own, while a bound morpheme is a
form that cannot stand as a word on its own. Thus un- in unkind is a bound form, since there is
no word ‘un’, but kind is a free morpheme.
5.
What is the difference between a root and a stem? Determine the root and the stem in
each of the following English words. Note that in certain words the root and the stem may be
identical. Include any commentary that you feel would be helpful in making your answer more
understandable.
(a) intolerant
(b) invite
(c) carefully
Answer:
A Stem is a form from which a word is derived by the addition of an affix. A root is a form from
which words or parts of words derived and which is not itself derivable from any smaller or
simpler form. Accordingly, we determine the root and the stem for the words given as follows:
(a) Root: tolerant
(b) Root: invite
(c) Root: care
6.
Stem: tolerant
Stem: invite
Stem: careful
What is a portmanteau morpheme? Give an example. Also, give an example of a
morpheme that is not a portmanteau.
3
LIN 3460
Fall 2009
Answer
A morpheme that expresses multiple concepts, e.g. Latin -o: 1st p, sing, present; French –
au: to the:Masc.SG; English: -s: 3rd SG Present-tense. Not a portmanteau: ‘cat’, -s: plural.
7.
Give just a lexicon as in Part I for the following Tzeltal data (WFR are not needed). In
addition, indicate whether each morpheme is a lexical morpheme (L) or grammatical morpheme
(G).
(1)
(2)
(3)
(4)
(5)
ɁuɁ
ɁuɁel
hɁuɁel
bih
bihel
‘to be strong’
‘power’
‘influential person’
‘to be intelligent’
‘intelligence’
(6)
(7)
(8)
(9)
(10)
siw
hsiwel
cam
camel
hcamelab
Answer:
Phon
/ɁuɁ/
/bih/
/siw/
/cam/
/h-/
/-el/
/-ab/
cat/affix
V
V
V
V
prefix
suffix
suffix
G/L
L
L
L
L
L
L
G
Æ
meaning
to be strong
to be intelligent
to be afraid
to be sick
NÆN person who has N
VÆN state of V/nominalizer
NÆN plural
WFR : N Æ (h) V el (plural) or : (h) V el (ab)
4
‘to be afraid’
‘coward’
‘to be sick’
‘illness’
‘invalids, sick people’